One of the requirements for obtaining safe working conditions for employees in various industries or emergency service organizations is the provision of protective garments that prevent toxic chemicals or other contaminants from coming into contact with the worker's body. The need for such protection has been emphasized in recent years by enactment of local, state, and federal laws and/or regulations requiring the use of protective garments under many circumstances.
The effectiveness of materials for protective garments and other chemical barrier application is conventionally determined by permeation tests which measure the time required for a given chemical to permeate through the material on a molecular level. A standarized test procedure for determining effectiveness against a wide variety of chemicals has been established. This procedure is designated by the American Society for Testing and Materials as the ASTM F739, "Test Method for Resistance of Protective Clothing Materials to Permeation by Liquds and Gases," and selection of chemicals for testing is governed by ASTM F1001 "Standard Guide for Selection of Chemicals to Evaluate Protective Clothing Materials." The test provides for exposure of materials in a standard two-part permeation cell to fifteen different liquid chemicals, representative of fifteen classes of compounds, until "breakthrough" occurs, this being defined as the time at which the smallest detectable amount, generally one part per million, of resulting gas molecules are measured on the opposite side of a material sample.
Various types of materials have been used for chemical barrier applications including polymeric films, rubber-based sheet material, and multilayer composites made by bonding of film layers to one another or to fabric. While the available materials may provide an effective barrier to some types of chemicals, none are known to prevent permeation of all of the fifteen included in the above-mentioned test procedure. One polymeric film material, for example, is effective for primary alcohols and inorganic mineral acids, but not for saturated hydrocarbons and chlorinated olefins. Another material is effective for many types of chemicals, but not for organic sulfur compounds or heterocyclic ethers. Such gaps in coverage require careful selection of the protective material for its end use environment. In many instances, the specific chemical components in a contaminating mixture, as may be present in waste dumps and hazardous response situations, may be unknown so that selection for a particular contaminant is not feasible. A need thus exists for a barrier material effective for a wide range of chemicals as exemplified by those included in the referenced test procedure.
In addition to providing an effective chemical barrier, materials for protective garments should meet practical requirements for amenability to fabrication by existing methods such as heat bonding of seams, as well as for sufficient physical strength to prevent tearing and the resulting loss of protection.